Work-Life Balance for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs)
How can overseas workers find work-life balance in their lives abroad?- Prioritize your time and set priorities
- Find time to talk to family and friends
- Make the most out of your breaks
- Find time to exercise
- Balance your finances
- Find harmony with what you do
This may lead to burning out which may cause you to lose interest with your job, feel tired throughout the day, and cause unnecessary stress. Overseas workers also need work-life balance to maintain a sense of harmony in their lives.
Prioritize Your Time and Set Priorities
Setting realistic goals, and following and actually sticking with a timeline is one of the best ways of achieving work-life balance.
Once you get a grip on the circumstances of your lifestyle, you can work within those conditions, properly set goals, categorize them based on importance and urgency, and work within a timeline. This prevents you from burying yourself with work and ignoring your personal life.
Find Time to Talk to Family and Friends
There’s nothing that relieves stress more than communication. It may get lonely, working away from your motherland. With today’s technology, distance is no longer a factor that hinders us from contacting those that matter in our lives.
If there’s anything that you want to express, voice out, or just want someone to talk to, there are various communication applications that can be acquired for free. These can be downloaded and accessed through your smartphone. It’s always good to talk to someone rather than keep things to yourself. Conversations also help manage stress.
Make the Most Out of Your Breaks
Cherish your breaks throughout the day, no matter how long or short they are. Make the most out of them. Don’t waste them by working throughout your time off. Read a book, play a game, catch up on some precious family moments from home through social media. Always find the time to unwind from work
Find Time to Exercise
Exercise helps lower stress, improve your level of fitness, and is a great way to unwind You can do simple exercises at home, look for gyms nearby, or play sports. Physical activities are not only good for the body but for the mind as well.
Exercise helps you stay alert and improve your productivity at work. Setting your mind away from work is essential for maintaining balance in your life. Exercising is a good way to look after your health. Partner this with healthy food and adequate sleep, and you’ve just improved your well-being.
Balance your Finances
Let’s face it, the main reason why one would be willing to work overseas is because of the high-paying salaries that are offered. The money that you will earn in a few months overseas will be a year’s worth of salary in the Philippines. This is a huge financial advantage for you and your family back home. But most OFWs don’t manage their finances wisely.
There are some OFWs who tend to have this financial habit of spending most of what they’ve earned and save what’s left of it. Earning a lot of money can be overwhelming and tempting to spend. But if you want to be economical about it and save more cash. You should do things the other way around. Save most of it and spend what’s left. Allocate a percentage of your income for savings, emergency, expenses, and for extra spending. Keep in mind that the biggest partition should go into your savings.
Find Harmony with what You Do
There’s more to just balancing your life when it comes to work-life balance. Sometimes, the word balance means that there will be some aspects in your life that need to be sacrificed or some form of compensation needs to be done. To truly find balance in your life, you must let everything sink in and accept the circumstances that revolve around you. Find a way to work around it. When you start noticing the patterns of your daily activities, you can easily find solutions to problems and work around your life with less stress and troubles.
Key Takeaway
You don’t have to put too much pressure on yourself as an overseas worker. Yes, you are expected to learn new things and adapt to your environment with haste. If you don’t watch out, you could easily burn out with your job overseas. The Philippines has over 2.3 million overseas workers all making great sacrifices for their families and it is a well-known fact that it’s difficult for them to get away from the daily grind.
With your family and loved ones in mind, you’re putting every effort of work for them. But they wouldn’t want you to exhaust yourself too much. Overseas workers also need to have work-life balance. Once you find that balance, you can be healthier, more productive, and stress-free.